


Everyone Hail To the Pumpkin Song

by mandeebobandee



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-01
Updated: 2018-10-31
Packaged: 2019-07-23 12:39:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 31
Words: 18,117
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16159136
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mandeebobandee/pseuds/mandeebobandee
Summary: My contributions to the Sanders Sides Spooks! Will hopefully be updating this throughout the month of October!





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is using the prompt 'Scary Movie Night' of the prompts posted at @sanderssidesspook on tumblr!

Virgil should have never allowed Thomas to agree to this.

 _“It’ll be fun, Virge! Joan and Talyn will be there, and they’ll make sure Thomas is safe! Besides, what could be so bad about a Halloween movie night?”_  Patton smiled, patting Virgil on the shoulder.

 _“Yeah Robert Downer Jr, dont be such a spoilsport,”_ Roman added.

Virgil supposed that they were right. It was just a movie night with Thomas and his friends on Halloween night, how bad could that get?

As it turned out? Pretty bad.

Virgil was expecting such holiday classics as  _It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown_  and his personal favorite,  _The Nightmare Before Christmas_.

Instead, Joan and Talyn busted out  _horror movies_.

It wasn’t that Virgil disliked horror movies. In fact, watching them in the safety of his own room, he quite enjoyed them. But that was  _him_  watching  _his own_  horror movies. This was Thomas watching horror movies, and as Thomas’ Anxiety, any fear that Thomas felt was magnified ten fold onto Virgil. 

Virgil tried to speak up, but his voice was not cooperating with him. He closed his eyes and tried to utilize his breathing exercises…inhale for 4 seconds, hold for 7 seconds, and exhale for 8 seconds…but this did little to help him. The world felt topsy turvy and off. Something bad was happening, but he didn’t have the words to describe what.

 _“Oh my God, what is happening?”_  Roman’s voice drew Virgil out of his own head as Roman voiced the exact question that Virgil was asking himself. Immediately after opening his eyes, he snapped them shut again.

Why was the ceiling so close?

 _“Intriguing. I was not aware that the increase in anxiety that Thomas felt when consuming such films for entertainment would present so literally,”_  Logan murmured. 

Virgil groaned.  **“We sHouLd NevEr HAve doNe tHis.”**  His voice was distorted, causing him to wince. He wasn’t exactly  _surprised_  given the circumstances, but it only added to his already frazzled state.

Roman smirked.  _“I guess you could say that he’s ‘Heightened Anxiety’, am I right?”_

Virgil hissed, pleased to see Roman flinch backward in response.

He was surprised, however, to hear a loud squeal of delight coming from Patton’s direction.  _“Awww, you’re like the Big Friendly Giant!_

Roman looked outraged.  _"Excuse me, 'friendly’? He hissed at me! That is hardly 'friendly!”_

_“But he’s so cute!”_

As Roman and Patton continued to argue over whether he was 'cute’ or not, and Logan shook his head exasperatedly, Virgil began to relax as he hid an amused smile behind his hand. Perhaps this wasn’t so bad after all.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The prompt for this one is Trick or Treat. =P Again, check out @sanderssidesspook on tumblr to see the full list of prompts!

This was not how Virgil wanted to spend his night.  
  
It wasn't that Virgil disliked Halloween - far from it, in fact! Halloween was Virgil's favorite day of the year! But he wanted to spend it how  _he_  liked. Instead, he was being forced to take his ten year old brother trick or treating.  
  
"He's  _ten_. Can't he go out by himself?"  
  
"Its not safe for a ten year old to go out by himself! I trust you to keep him safe. Can you do that for me, Virgil?"  
  
Virgil frowned, looking over at his brother. Roman was dressed as a Disney Prince ('Prince Roman' he called himself, indicating that he was not dressed as any particular prince but as a prince in general). Virgil had to admit that his little brother pulled off the look well.   
  
Virgil, on the other hand, was dressed in an ensemble befitting Jack Skellington. Instead of wearing a mask over his face, however, he created the same effect using makeup - white foundation to make himself even paler than usual and intensifying the black eyeliner he usually wore around his eyes.  
  
Twenty minutes into trick or treating, and Virgil already wanted to go home.  
  
"Trick or treat! Smell my feet! Give me something good to eat!" Roman sung for what Virgil would swear was the zillionth time since they set out.  
  
"No one wants to smell your feet, Roman," Virgil muttered. Surprisingly, Roman actually fell silent. Go figure.   
  
"Alright, we'll get these houses over here and then we'll start heading back and hit up the other side of the street. How does that sound Ro?"  
  
Silence.  
  
"...Roman? Are you paying attention?" When Roman still didn't respond, Virgil turned to look at him.  
  
He immediately felt as if he'd plunged into ice cold water. Roman was  _gone_.  
  
"Roman? Where did you go?" Virgil called out, trying to disguise the shaking in his voice. His father entrusted him to keep Roman safe. Losing Roman was the exact opposite of safe! Roman could have gone off playing somewhere dangerous, or even gotten kidnapped!  
  
No wonder their father wanted Virgil to take Roman trick or treating. There were so many bad things that could happen to a ten year old trick or treating alone, and Virgil's increasingly frantic mind cycled through each and every one of them.

"Virge, over here!"

  
That was Roman's voice. He didn't sound scared, which was a good sign. It also meant that at least  _one_  of them wasn't.   
  
Virgil scanned the small crowd, his eyes falling on Roman. He immediately felt as if a intense weight lifted itself off of his shoulders, allowing him to relax. He rolled his shoulders and cracked his eck as he walked over to his brother in an attempt to relieve some of the remaining tension there.  
  
Once he moved a bit closer, Virgil noticed that Roman wasn't alone. He was standing near a bespectacled little boy dressed as...was that little boy dressed as  _R2-D2_?  
  
"Virge, this is Patton! From school, remember? I told you about him!"  
  
Virgil did vaguely remember that. He had a tendency to block things out when Roman rambled too much about school.   
  
Upon moving closer, Virgil came to the sudden realization that Patton was not alone trick or treating either. Or at least he  _assumed_  that the young man dressed as Obi-Wan Kenobi was with Patton.  
  
"I, uh...I'm sorry. He...ran off, I'm glad you found him, I..."  
  
The young man chuckled, a melodious sound that Virgil wanted to hear more of. He had the odd feeling that young man didn't laugh like that much, making the moment even more special.  
  
"Its alright. Patton gets excited like that too. Its part of the reason our mother asked me to go with him," the young man remarked with an eyeroll accompanied by the slightest of smirks. "Logan, by the way." He held out a hand for Virgil to shake.   
  
Virgil rubbed at the back of his neck. He glanced at Patton and Roman who were still chattering excitedly about how much candy they hauled thus far. He and Logan wouldn’t be heading separate ways any time soon, something Virgil had no complaints about. "Virgil," he managed a small smile and met Logan's hand with his own.  
  
Maybe taking Roman trick or treating wasn't so bad after all.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is for Prompt 3, Pumpkin Carving

It was Roman's idea initially. It was Patton who named it.

Pumpkin Surprise.

"Its like Secret Santa, only with pumpkins!" Patton explained in delight.

"Then why not just call it Secret Pumpkin?" Logan quirked an eyebrow upward, looking supremely unamused.

"Pumpkin Surprise has a better ring to it!" Roman chimed in.

 "It sounds like a mystery dessert you'd find in a school cafeteria," Virgil mumbled.

The object was to pull names out of a hat and carve a pumpkin for the person whose name you pulled. Even Deceit got in on the action.

On Halloween Night, the five Sides approached the living room table, where they'd each placed their pumpkins.

It was easy to tell which pumpkin was carved for which Side. One pumpkin had an elaborate crown, the next a kitten and puppy playing with a miniature pumpkin. There were also pumpkins with a detailed carving of a rattlesnake, the Crofters bear, and...

"...is that  _Hanson_?" Virgil gaped at the final pumpkin which bore a carving resembling the cover of one of Hanson's albums in immense detail. 

"You said at the Q&A in Australia that you liked Hanson!" Roman protested.

"I think we know who carved Virgil's pumpkin," Patton said with a giggle.

"You...actually remembered that?" Virgil gaped at Roman. He thought it was such a throwaway comment, and yet Roman not only committed it to memory but _utilized_ that knowledge to carve Virgil's pumpkin. "Thanks, Princey," Virgil mumbled, one corner of his mouth twitching upward into a half-smile.

"Me next, me next! I assume the kitty and puppy are for me!" Patton clapped his hands together.

"No, they're  _obviously_  for me," Deceit drawled.

"Uh, Deceit, I think yours is actually..." Patton started.

"Deceit knows full well which one is his pumpkin," Logan squeezed the bridge of his nose with his fingers, as if trying to work out a headache. "I hope your Halloween is enjoyable, Patton."

"...you did this, Lo?" Patton asked in a quiet voice.

"Yes?" Logan half-answered, half-asked.

"AWWWWW! Thank you so much!" Patton threw himself at Logan, his arms pulling the logical Side into a bear hug. Logan spluttered, his glasses askew as he awkwardly hugged Patton back.

"I am not at all curious as to who carved my pumpkin," Deceit's voice cut through the reverie. "They did a horrible job with the snake. It does not look at all like my dear Samantha," Samantha being Deceit's pet snake.

Patton pulled away from Logan at once, looking stricken. Virgil immediately clenched his hands into fists. "You take that back," he growled before shifting his gaze to Patton.

"Virgil, Patton, I believe the two of you are forgetting something," Logan cleared his throat. "Deceit's syntax only permits him to speak in negatives."

"...what?" Patton's voice was small.

"Deceit can only tell lies," Roman explained.

"Which means..." Virgil relaxed considerably.

"You liked it! You really liked it!" Patton beamed, turning to Deceit and enveloping him in a bear hug of his own.

Logan grabbed the pumpkin he was sufficiently confident was  _his_  pumpkin. "The detail on this bear is impeccable. I am most impressed with the workmanship."

He glanced at the two remaining carvers. Deceit was still enveloped in Patton's arms. Virgil...

Virgil's face was beet red. 

"This is your work, Virgil, is it not?" Logan traced over one of the carvings.

Virgil nodded, shifting slightly where he stood. "I know it's not the greatest..."

"Virgil, I just told you that I was impressed with this pumpkin. That does not change on the basis of who carved it. You did a good job," Logan assured him.

"Yeah, well...Crofters, right?" Virgil scratched at his elbow with the hand on his other arm.

"That means..." Roman eyed his own pumpkin. "This is Deceit's handiwork."

"You're wrong, it most certainly is not," Deceit called out from behind Patton.

That was as good as a confession.

"I LOVE IT!" Roman shouted, causing Virgil to jump and cover his ears and Logan to glare in Roman's direction.

"Was that really necessary?" he snapped.

 "Of course it is. How else will you all know how much I love it? It makes me want to siiiiiiiiing," Roman called out in a sing song voice. "Truly a pumpkin befitting a prince!"

Logan groaned and buried his face in his hands.

"Well kiddos, what do you say? Should we do this every year?" Patton announced once he finally freed Deceit, Deceit letting out a massive sigh of relief.

Various agreements echoed through the room.

And thus a new Halloween tradition was born.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the prompt Sunsets and Sweaters

Virgil crept outside (or the Mind Palace's version of 'outside', at least, not outside in the  _truest_ sense). He'd done a quick sweep of the house and determined that the others were busy. Logan was proofreading a script, Roman was singing along with a musical so loudly that Virgil could hear him in the hallway, and Patton was decorating the living room for Halloween.  
  
Virgil slipped outside. Though he supposed he could have worn his hoodie outside, he'd chosen to wear his sweater from the Christmas video. It rocked the fall/Halloween aesthetic so befitting of this time of year, despite being for a different holiday, and it wasn't like he had many other opportunities to wear it.  
  
That said, he didn't necessarily want the others to see him wearing it around. It wasn't his  _usual attire_.  
  
He sat at the base of the largest tree in their backyard and looked upward. The sun was descending toward the horizon. Virgil didn't catch very many sunrises - he stayed up late and slept in late on most days, not exactly conducive to watching the sun rise - but he enjoyed watching sunsets. There was something calming about it, watching the sky turn as many colors as the leaves on the tree he sat cross-legged beneath.  
  
Virgil heard the telltale crunching of leaves that could only indicate one thing - He wasn't alone. He tried to make himself smaller, hoping in vain that the person who joined him in the backyard would not see him.  
  
"Oh, I'm sorry, I did not realize that anyone else was present." That was Logan's voice.   
  
Virgil gave a light shrug as he turned to catch a glimpse of Logan. He was surprised at what he saw.  
  
"Logan, is that..."  
  
Logan cleared his throat. "My sweater from last Christmas? Yes it is. I thought the weather to be suitable for wearing such articles of clothing. I also see that I am not alone in this opinion."  
  
Before, the temperature felt perfect. Now? Virgil's entire face felt  _hot_. Maybe he should have worn his hoodie out here after all.  
  
"What are you doing out here, if you do not mind me ask?" Logan inquired.  
  
"I...I heard it was going to be a nice sunset tonight," Virgil responded at last.  
  
"Sunset? I came out here for what comes directly after the sunset," Logan explained.  
  
Virgil glanced to the sky before returning his gaze to Logan, looking positively incredulous. "Are you a werewolf, Logan?"  
  
Logan's eyes widened. "What?! Why...why are you asking?"  
  
"Hey, I'm not judging..."  
  
"I am  _not_  a werewolf!" Logan emphasized with an arch of his brow and his arms across his chest. "I come out here to stargaze, not to howl at the moon."  
  
Virgil smirked. "I know. I just like messing with you."  
  
Logan rolled his eyes. He seemed to struggle with something for a moment, but then spoke once more. "If you would like to, you may join me."  
  
An invitation? Virgil was genuinely surprised. "I...uh...I mean, I got nothing else to do?" He didn't. Thomas was staying in for the night, and thus there were fewer activities that Virgil needed to track to complete his risk assessment for the night.  
  
"And, uh...I guess you can join me for the sunset? Just don't tell the others. I don't want this to turn into a big thing," Virgil added.  
  
"As long as you do not inform them about my nightly excursions to view the beauty of the universe, I do not plan to. I believe we have an agreement."  
  
"Then have a seat," Virgil patted the ground beside him  
  
They stayed there for hours, as the sun set and the moon and stars rose. As the time passed, Virgil and Logan began to lean closer and closer together as the night went on, relying on each other's body heat in addition to the sweaters to keep warm enough. Virgil's eyelids began to grow heavy as he moved closer still to Logan's warmth. Then...  
  
"Virgil. I believe it is time for us to head inside."  
  
Virgil jolted awake, not having realized that he fell asleep with his head resting against Logan's shoulder. "Urgh...what time is it?" He asked, yawning and stretching out his arms.  
  
"11pm," Logan answered briskly. "Unless you wish to fall asleep in the backyard and run the risk of Patton, Roman, or even Deceit discovering us here tomorrow, it would be best for us to make our way back inside."  
  
Virgil nodded, pushing himself to his feet. "Hey Lo?"  
  
"Yes, Virgil?" Logan asked, looking a bit puzzled.  
  
"This...this was...sorta nice," Virgil told him.  
  
Logan sent a small smile in Virgil's direction. "I agree. I feel that it would benefit us both to repeat this at some point in the near future."  
  
One corner of Virgil's mouth twisted upward into a half-smile. "Well, when you put it  _that_  way...how does tomorrow sound?"


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt #5 is Jumping In Leaves

Of all the things Virgil and Logan expected to see when they stepped out of Logan's room after watching a documentary about aliens together?   
  
"Why does it look as if one hundred trees abscised in the middle of the common area simultaneously?" Logan gaped.  
  
Indeed, the common room of the Mind Palace was filled with leaves similar to the way a ball pit would be filled with plastic balls.   
  
"CANNONBAAAAAAAAAAAALL!" Roman went sprinting by the two, launching himself into the air and tucking his legs beneath him as he leaped into the leaves.  
  
Then there was giggling, and Patton's head surfaced from beneath the leaves. "I cannot  _be-leaf_ you just did that, Roman."   
  
"What...what is this?" Logan stared at the scene, at a rare loss for words.  
  
"Patton was discussing fall traditions and how none of us have ever had the chance to go jumping into a pile of leaves. So...I made this for him," Roman boasted, gesturing to the leaf-covered living room.  
  
"There must be...Roman, there must be  _thousands_."  
  
"Gotta hand it to you Princey. I knew you were extra, but you really outdid yourself this time," Virgil remarked, folding his arms across his chest. He was incredulous, yet...honestly, a little impressed, especially when he saw that not every leaf was identical. There were maple leaves, oak leaves, aspen leaves, and elm leaves, just to name a few.  
  
"Come oooooon you guys, it's fun! Besides, it shouldn't be  _that_  hard to clean up. Roman conjured them, so he should be able to make them disappear, right?" Patton looked to Roman for confirmation.  
  
Roman nodded. "See? Nothing to worry about."  
  
"I'll be the judge of that," Virgil remarked with a slight smirk.  
  
"Come on, we can make leaf angels!" Patton called out to Virgil and Logan, leading by example.  
  
Virgil chewed on his lips. How could he say not to Patton? Virgil flopped onto the floor beside Patton and began making leaf angels of his own followed shortly thereafter by a reluctant Logan, persuaded only after Roman compared the experience to a science experiment where Logan could make observations and draw a conclusion later on.  
  
Once they were actually playing in the leaves, Virgil and Logan warmed up to the whole thing much faster than Patton and Roman anticipated. Unbeknownst to Virgil and Logan, Patton was taking the occasional moment to snap picture of all four Sides in various states of fun. He loved capturing these candid moments, and he couldn't ask for a moment much more candid than this.   
  
Roman inched closer to Virgil before scooping up a armful of leaves and dumped them atop Virgil's head. Virgil immediately scooped a pile of leaves into his own arms and began to chase the other Side around the room in an attempt to return the favor.  
  
Soon, all four were engaged in a 'leaf war' of sorts. Said leaf war had nothing near the potential for destruction as a snowball fight, but it had its own charms. By the time 'war' was over and an armistice called, all four sides were sprawled out on the common room floor in various states of disarray.  
  
"So...what did you guys think?" Roman asked of Virgil and Logan eagerly.  
  
"I stand by what I said earlier - you really outdid yourself this time, Princey" Virgil told him, gesturing around at the room around them before letting out an amused snort. Overdoing it was putting it lightly, and they both knew it.  
  
"I suppose it was...entertaining, in its own sort of way," Logan added.  
  
Roman could not help but smirk to himself - and to Patton, who wore a knowing smile of his own. He knew Virgil and Logan were both stubborn, but he also knew both of them well enough to discern that they'd enjoyed themselves no matter how reluctant they were to admit it.  
  
He did make sure honor his promise to Logan. With a wave of his hands, he disposed of the leaves as quickly as he snapped his fingers.  
  
Patton looked up from his phone with a yelp and immediately made a mad dash to his room with a mischievous grin on his face, leaving the other three Sides standing in confusion.  
  
"Wonder where he went off to in such a hurry?" Roman wondered aloud, speaking for all three of them.  
  
"I dunno, but I have a feeling we'll find out soon enough," Virgil shot a glance at Patton's door, let out a chuckle as he shook his head, then continued on his way.  
  
And indeed they would...eventually.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is using prompt #6, or Decorating for Fall

"Virgil, would you mind coming downstairs for a moment? I would like to ask your opinion on the curtains," Logan called upstairs to Virgil, who paused the video that he was watching on his laptop and slid out of his chair.  
  
He and Logan purchased their first house together less than two weeks before and the two were still adjusting to their new dwelling. They hadn't even purchased new  _curtains_  for the home yet, hence why Logan was calling Virgil down to ask for his opinion.  
  
He glanced at the tear-away calendar resting atop the desk. Midway through October and they hadn't even had a chance to decorate the house  _period_ , let alone for Halloween. Unfortunate, as Halloween was by far Virgil's favorite holiday and it only came once a year. He usually went all out in decorating his room back home.  
  
Virgil pulled his hoodie on as he slipped out of the room he shared with his boyfriend and plodded along down the hall, reaching the top of the stairs. It was here that he heard something unexpected for the first time.  
  
The unmistakable sound of 'This Is Halloween' playing downstairs.  
  
Virgil furrowed his brow, sure that he was mistaken. He listened closer, trying to determine what song he was  _actually_  hearing, but there was no denying that 'This Is Halloween' was coming from downstairs.  
  
Virgil could hardly believe his ears. Virgil took the stairs two at a time, eager to see what in the world was going on.  
  
Were the bottom of his jaw not connected to the rest of his face, it would have fallen to the floor in surprise.  
  
The living room looked like something out of A Nightmare Before Christmas. There were spider webs draped over everything, black and orange streamers. A large pumpkin sat atop the living room table, his and Logan's best friend Roman sitting before it with a pumpkin carving kit. The design looked to be only half-finished, but it was unmistakable that the design Roman was carving into the pumpkin was meant to resemble the face of Jack Skellington.  
  
Virgil was at an utter loss for words.  
  
"Hey kiddo, over here! Tell us what you think of these curtains!"  
  
Virgil whirled around at once at the sound of his older brother's voice. Patton smiled warmly at him, holding up two different curtain designs. One was purple and bore witches flying on brooms and pumpkins and other varied Halloween-associated imagery. The other was blue and consisted of spiders in their webs.  
  
"I...Patton, aren't you afraid of spiders?" Why was  _that_  the first thing out of his mouth, of all things?  
  
Patton chuckled. "I am, but this isn't for me, this is for  _you_!"  
  
Virgil gaped at him, and at Roman, who finally looked up from his pumpkin project and gave Virgil a wave. "I...what? I don't get...what is this?"  
  
Patton frowned. "Logan didn't tell you?"  
  
"No...? What was Logan supposed to tell me?" Virgil asked them, utterly confused.  
  
"...surprise?" Roman gestured to the room around them, unable to disguise the grin slowly crossing his features.  
  
Logan entered the room, carrying a plate of cookies in varying Halloween shapes. "Here we are, snacks. It took a couple of attempts to get the recipe just as I desired, but I think the results are adequate this time around. Hello, Virgil."  
  
Virgil's mouth hung open halfway until he finally had the sense to close it.   
  
"I am aware that Halloween is your favorite holiday, and that we are still getting settled. That is why I called on Roman and Patton to help. Despite our busy schedule, I still wished to decorate for your favorite holiday. I hope that everything is to your liking..."  
  
Virgil stood for another moment or so in silence, trying to take everything in. It wasn't until he noticed Logan shifting awkwardly that he remembered that he still needed to answer his boyfriend. "I love it, Lo. I love everything. Thank...thank you." He moved closer to his boyfriend, slowly moving in to give the other man a peck on the lips.  
  
"Get a room!" Roman called out while cupping his hand over his mouth to increase his volume, causing Virgil and Logan to chuckle together.  
  
"I believe that's why we're all here in the first place, isn't it? To celebrate Virgil and Logan 'getting a room', so to speak? Only it's not a room, it's an entire house!" Patton responded. Both he and Roman grinned, indicating that the two of them were joking with Virgil and Logan.  
  
"I mean it though. Thank you. All of you. This is probably the best Halloween that I've ever had," Virgil informed them all.  
  
"Even better than that one year you..."  
  
"Patton, you said you'd never mention that again as long as you live!" Virgil warned his older brother. Patton closed his mouth at once, smiling mischievously. Virgil had a feeling that this wouldn't be the last Patton would say of the Great Spider Incident.  
  
In the meantime... "I do not believe you answered Patton's question regarding the curtains. Which do you prefer?"  
  
In the end, Virgil decided on the purple curtains, as purple was his favorite color and they suited his aesthetic more.  
  
And here he thought they  _weren't_  going to decorate for Halloween because they didn't have time...silly him. He ought to have known better.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My contribution for Prompt #7, Fall Baking

_"Come to the kitchen, kiddos! I have a surprise for all of you!"_  Patton's voice echoed through the Mind Palace.   
  
Logan was the first to enter the kitchen, peering around in curiosity. There, as of yet, no hints as to what the 'surprise' that was waiting for them may be.  
  
The next to enter the kitchen was Virgil, clad as usually in his patched hoodie with his hands stuffed into his pockets.  _"Yo,"_  he removed one hand from his pocket and waved to the others before tucking it safely back inside of the pocket.  
  
Deceit was next to appear, resting a gloved hand on the counter. The counter was apparently slipperier than he anticipated, and his hand slipped, sending his arm sliding across the table. Deceit quickly righted himself and brushed off his outfit.  _"I totally meant to do that."_  
  
Last but not least was Roman.  
  
 _"You're late, Roman,"_  Virgil drawled.  
  
 _"Fashionably late!"_  Roman corrected.  _"A prince has got to slay, you know!"_  
  
 _"Hi everyone! I bet you're all wondering why I called you here..."_  he turned and took something from the counter behind him into his hands before turning around to show the other Sides.  _"See? I made cupcakes!"_  
  
The other four Sides stared at the cupcakes. Virgil was the first to remark that something was a tad bit  _off_  about them.  _"Uh, Patton...there's...no frosting. Don't cupcakes usually have frosting?"_  
  
Patton beamed.  _"You're right Virgil, they do! If you noticed, there are FIVE cupcakes, and there are FIVE of us! Each of us are going to decorate our own cupcakes!"_  
  
 _"With what, exactly?"_  Logan arched an eyebrow skeptically.  
  
 _"With anything we can find in the kitchen! I want each of your cupcakes to have their own special touch! Are you ready? GO!"_  
  
There was a short pause as the five Sides glanced at each other, wondering who was going to move first...then a sudden flurry of activity as they each set to work on decorating their respective cupcakes.  
  
Twenty minutes passed before it seemed as if everyone was finished. Just as he was the last to arrive to the kitchen, Roman was the last to finish with his cupcake.  
  
 _"Well...let's see them all!"_  Patton clapped his hands together in delight as each Side placed their cupcake on the counter for the other Sides to look at.  
  
It was easy to tell whose cupcake was whose. Patton's cupcake had the face of a cat drawn onto it, along with peanut butter cups attached to the side to mimic cat ears. Logan's was by far the neatest of the five cupcakes, as if he put extra time and focus into making sure that every detail was perfect. Notably, Logan's cupcake also had a large piece carved out in the center, that appeared to be filled with  _jam_  of some sort.  
  
 _"...that's Crofters, isn't it?"_  Roman observed. " _Logan's Berry?"_  
  
The sight of Logan's face turning a rare shade of red was all the evidence the other sides needed to confirm Roman's theory.  
  
Roman's was decorated elaborately. The icing, frosting, and other toppings piled upon the cupcake were so plentiful that it was impossible to see the initial cupcake buried beneath everything else.  
  
Virgil's consisted of mostly frosting, though he'd chosen purples, oranges, and blacks - Halloween colors, in other words. He'd also placed two wrapped candy eyeballs atop his cupcake to add to the ensemble.  
  
Last but not least there was Deceit's - decorated with frosting and sprinkles on one half of the cupcake, and a hefty helping of  _gummy worms_  atop the frosting on the other.  
  
 _"Well, that we have decorated the cakes, it follows that we should eat..."_  Logan started.  
  
 _"Not yet!"_  Patton called out, dashing out of the room for a moment before running back in with his phone.  _"I want to take a picture of all of us with our cupcakes! Now each of you pick up your cupcake and stand close to me!"_  
  
 _"Do we have to?"_  Virgil groaned.  
  
 _"Come on! It'll be cute!"_  Patton insisted.  
  
The other four Sides moved in closer to Patton, standing behind him as Patton held out his cell phone and flipped the camera so that he could take a picture of the five of them in selfie mode.   
  
Once satisfied that all five Sides (and their cupcakes) were in the picture, Patton snapped the picture, thus assuring that this moment would be preserved for posterity. The five Sides dug in to their cupcakes, enjoying their fruits of their labors at last.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let's try posting this to the right fic this time... XD To anyone who reads 'Because A Vision Softly Creeping', sorry for the confusion earlier when I accidentally posted this. =P
> 
> Anyway...I didn't set out to make this a hurt/comfort but that's how it happened. Warnings for panic attacks and mentions of people falling.

_"Let's go on the roller coaster,"_  they said.  _"It'll be fun,"_  they said.

  
Until the roller coaster got stuck with its cars at the very top of the hill.

It wasn't even that large of a roller coaster, just a small one rented for their community college's fall festival. Virgil knew that he didn't do well with heights, but he'd assumed that this small roller coaster wouldn't be too bad. The ups and downs would be fast, and he could take solace in the fact that he wouldn't have to stay atop the tallest curves of the roller coaster long.

So much for  _that_.

Not wanting to draw attention to himself, Virgil attempted to shrink back into his hoodie as much as possible. He tried closing his eyes, but found that was  _worse_  as it blocked out what was going on entirely and left Virgil with the terrible sensation that something could go wrong at any moment and he wouldn't see if they were to plummet to the ground and wouldn't be able to protect himself...

"Look, mom, no hands!" he heard the familiar voice of Roman Prince calling out from a few feet away. He glanced up just in time to see Roman dangling the upper half of his body over the side of the car he was in, flailing his arms around exaggeratedly.

It was a joke, but Virgil's stomach lurched at the sudden though of something going  _wrong_ , of the roller coaster suddenly starting while Roman was goofing off and launching him off the ride for real. 

He thought of the roller coaster starting, only to go off the rails and fly into the crowd below. If the roller coaster stopped, something had to be wrong, and what if what was wrong happened to be on the tracks themselves? Virgil successfully stifled a whimper that threatened to escape him as he pulled his hoodie tighter around himself, trying to block out any and all view of the ground around him. His hands clenched on to the bar in front of him so tightly that his knuckles were white, and his hands tingled so badly that he wondered if something else was wrong, because why the hell were his  _hands numb_?

"Hey, look at me," a gentle voice spoke to him, and Virgil chanced a glance upward at the person sitting next to him. A young man around his age with a cardigan wrapped around his shoulders and a soft smile on his face stared back at him. 

"I know it's scary, I don't like it much either. But they'll get us down soon enough. Here, take my hand." 

Virgil hesitated for a moment before doing as instructed. "S-Sor-" He was probably clinging onto his hand way too hard, probably  _hurting_  him...

"What is your name?" the soft voice asked, cutting through the static in Virgil's ears and his mind in general.

"V-Virgil," Virgil responded.

"Patton," the other young man responded. "What are you studying?"

Virgil was caught off guard by this question but did not want to be rude, so he did his best to answer. "...Ch-Chemistry."

"Really? Me too!" Patton chirped happily. "How old are you?"

Several questions later, when Virgil's mind was somewhat clearer and he could form more than one word sentences, Virgil realized what Patton was doing. He was providing Virgil's mind with a distraction, something to take his mind off of the frightening situation that they were in. It wasn't a foolproof solution, and the panic came rushing back every time he chanced a glance downward, but it did offer  _some_  assistance.

"What is..." Patton started, then lurched forward slightly. Virgil jolted in a way that was  _not_  just from the mere movement of the cars.

The roller coaster was working again.

The rest of the ride passed with little fanfare, but Virgil was all too eager to hop off of the ride as soon as the opportunity presented itself. He nearly launched himself out of his seat, stopped only by the seat-belt still strapped across him. The ride operator laughed and told him to hang on a second, clearly without a scope of the situation as a whole, then took the time to unstrap the man and woman in the row in front of him before undoing Virgil's fastenings.

Once his seatbelt was undone, Virgil climbed out at once, stumbling on shaky legs away from the roller coaster.

He was safe, he was  _safe_ , now he just needed to find Roman and Logan and maybe sit down for a bit because he was still somewhat shaken from the whole ordeal...

He felt a hand on his shoulder and nearly jumped out of his skin.

"I'm sorry! I just wanted to make sure you were okay!" the familiar voice of Patton cried.

Patton? Virgil assumed Patton would have wanted nothing to do with him after they departed from the ride.

"It's okay," Virgil muttered. "I just..." He chewed on his lip as he debated what to say next. "I..."

"It's okay, take your time," Patton smiled. "Don't rush yourself."

"I...thought I...I thought I could face my fears..." Virgil glanced back at the roller coaster and winced.

Patton frowned. "Let me guess, you're afraid of roller coasters and thought you needed to conquer your fear, and then...that happened?"

Virgil nodded. Patton smiled. "Awww, don't sweat it. I'm terribly afraid of spiders, you know that?"

Virgil glanced up from the ground at this.

"I mean it. You know how high up we were? What am I saying, of course you know how high up we were. If there was a spider in that car, I would have probably tried to jump out of our car. That's how scared of spiders I am!"

Virgil muttered. "But it's stupid. L-Logan says it's illogical, and it is, it's just..."

"Fears aren't always logical, Virgil, but that doesn't make the experience of them any less valid!"

Huh. He'd never thought about it that way.

"Anyway, I know just the thing that might help. Did you know they have elephant ears here? Come, I'll show you were they are..."

Patton seized Virgil gently by the hand and began leading him along.

Patton wasn't wrong. He did know just the thing that helped. But it wasn't the elephant ears.

It was Patton himself.

Though admittedly, the knowledge that both of his feet were planted safely and firmly back on the ground helped considerably as well.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is using prompt #8, Candy Shopping. And it's a bit shorter than others >.<

Virgil expertly meandered through the crowd, despite barely chancing a glance up from the tumblr app on his phone. He carried a bag of fun-sized Milky Ways in his hands, approaching his family's basket and tossing it in.   
  
"Thank you, Virgil," the teen's father, Logan, told him, as he placed a bag of his own into the basket, alongside assorted Halloween decorations and his younger brother Roman's Halloween costume. His fathers offered to get Virgil a Halloween costume as well, but Virgil informed them that he was planning on making his own.  
  
Speaking of...  
  
Virgil stuffed his phone back into the pocket of his hoodie and glanced around. "Father? Where are Dad and Roman?" Logan always preferred to be called by his full title of 'father', while Patton, his other father, preferred 'dad'. It helped Virgil and Roman to keep track of which one they were talking about at a given time, so Virgil wasn't complaining.   
  
Logan glanced upward at that. "Oh, your Dad went off with Roman to pick up a few last bags of candy before we go."  
  
Virgil stared at his father as if he had two heads. "...and what made you think that was a good idea?  _Dad_  and  _Roman_  shopping alone?"  
  
"I gave them a list to keep them focused and goal-oriented," Logan explained.  
  
"...that might work for your students, but I don't think that's gonna work for Dad and Roman," Virgil remarked skeptically.   
  
"Why do you say that, Virgil?"  
  
"Look," Virgil pointed behind Logan. Logan turned in time to see his husband pushing a cart packed near to the top with bags of candy, an eight year old boy riding atop the candy.   
  
"Virgil! I climbed candy mountain, see? I told you I could do it!" Roman announced cheerfully.  
  
The bag that Logan was holding slipped from his grasp and hit the floor with a crunch.   
  
The corners of Virgil's mouth twitched upward as Logan groaned. "Focused and goal-oriented, you said?"


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is for prompt #10, Corn Maze

"This is the correct way, I'm sure of it. See, Darnall sold this map to me for five dollars..." Roman insisted, gesturing to the map in his hands.  
  
"I dunno, it feels like we're just getting more and more lost..."[ Patton chimed in with a frown.  
  
Virgil, Logan, Roman, and Patton decided to take a short drive away from campus to go to a corn maze. Virgil and Logan were both hesitant, though Roman and Patton managed to convince them to come through a combination of puppy dog eyes and blackmail.  
  
"...excuse me, did you just state that you purchased that map from Darnall?" Logan frowned, taking the map from Roman's hands and peering down at it.  
  
Virgil peeked over Logan's shoulder, letting out a groan as soon as he spotted the logo for a competing corn maze in the corner. "Roman, this map isn't even for this corn maze! All you've done is succeed in getting us  _lost_. Great job, Princey," he muttered, wishing that he was back in his dorm blasting songs from The Nightmare Before Christmas and working on his Halloween costume.  
  
"Well excuse me, at least I'm  _trying_  to figure out this maze and haven't spent the whole time moping, unlike  _someone I know_ ," Roman fired back.  
  
"Guys, guys, calm down. Yelling at each other isn't going to get us out of here," Patton stepped between the two.  
  
"While I do admit that Roman was foolish to have purchased a map from Darnall, who is known across campus for his scams, I must agree with Patton. Exchanging insults with one another is not conducive to escaping these maze," Logan pointed out.  
  
"Fiiiiiiine," Virgil and Roman muttered simultaneously.  
  
"So...what  _do_  we do then, smart one?" Roman arched an eyebrow at Logan after a moment or so of silence passed. "You think you're so smart,  _you_  get us out of here."  
  
"I suppose we could attempt going back this way..." Logan murmured.  
  
"No, I think we went that way before!" Patton observed. "Why don't we try that way?"  
  
In the end, Patton was right - The four them did a much better job of navigating the maze once the four of them started working together. As for the map? The four of them took turns shredding it to pieces and leaving the scattered remains on the ground of the maze.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is using prompt #11, Hay Ride

"I told you, I have the best pumpkin of them all!" Roman declared, his pumpkin above his head for his three closest friends to see.  
  
"That's just the largest pumpkin, Roman, not necessarily the best," Logan pushed his glasses up his nose, holding his pumpkin against his side with his other hand. Logan went for the pumpkin that had the smallest number of dents and bruises.  
  
"I think my cute little pumpkin is the best, actually," Patton smiled and held out his petite yet admittedly cute pumpkin.   
  
Virgil did not say anything. He doubted that anyone would consider his pumpkin the  _best_  - which was the reason he'd chosen the pumpkin that he did in the first place. His pumpkin was dented, scratched, and bruised - it had several imperfections that Virgil suspected caused it to be overlooked. Virgil had a feeling that if he didn't take the pumpkin, no one would...and that would be awfully sad.  
  
"So what's next on the agenda?" Patton went to clap his hands together in anticipation, then realized he was still holding his pumpkin in his hand. He slipped the small pumpkin into the pocket of his cardigan then proceeded to  _actually_  clap his hands together.  
  
"We're going for a hay ride!" Roman announced, leaving no room for questions. Virgil could not help but notice that Patton's face fell a little at this, but before he could say anything, Roman was leading them toward the line for hay rides.  
  
The four of them climbed onto a cart with a few others and tried to get as comfortable as they could. Thankfully, the hay provided a considerable amount of padding.  
  
"Isn't this fantastic?" Roman asked the other three after the cart was going for a moment or so.  
  
"The view is quite nice," Logan agreed.  
  
"It's...okay, I guess," Virgil shrugged. He was actually enjoying himself, but he didn't want to give Roman the satisfaction to gloat about it for the next week.  
  
"It's..." Patton sniffed. "great."  
  
"Patton, are you alright?" Logan furrowed his brow, his gaze focused on Patton.  
  
"Patton are you...what's wrong?" Roman blurted out as his gaze shifted to Patton as well, and Virgil immediately saw why. Between the sniffle and the way that Patton was dabbing at his eyes?  
  
"Oh no, I shouldn't have...we need to stop this ride right away!" Roman started to get up. Patton's eyes widened and he reached out, gently pulling Roman back down.  
  
"N-No," Patton sniffed again, "I don't want to ruin the ride for everyone else."  
  
"But you're clearly not enjoying yourself!" Roman protested, guilt on his face. "I should have asked ahead of time..."  
  
"I  _am_  enjoying myself!" Patton explained. Logan and Virgil exchanged skeptical looks.  
  
"It certainly doesn't seem like it, if you are crying..." Roman pointed out.  
  
"...crying?" Patton shot a puzzled look at Roman. "I'm not crying."  
  
"Patton, it's okay to be upset sometimes, you don't have to be happy all the time, we talked about this..." Virgil told him gently.  
  
Patton, to the surprise of the other three, started to laugh. "You think..." He sniffed again, a few more chuckles escaping. "This...this isn't crying." Patton wiped at his nose. "This is  _allergies_. Hay and straw set off my allergies."  
  
There was a long silence at that. Virgil's entire face turned red and he started tracing shapes in the straw with his finger. Logan cleared his throat and suddenly paid a lot more attention to his surroundings.   
  
Roman simply looked dumbfounded. "...allergies. So you're not...?"  
  
Patton shook his head, letting out another giggle. "No. I'm having fun, I swear!"   
  
Roman looked relieved at this. He glanced over at the other two. "And don't think you're going to get away with this, you thought he was crying too...Virgil, are your  _ears red_? That is so cute!"  
  
Virgil hissed at Roman and pulled his hood up over his head, taking extra care to flatten it against his head.   
  
Once they dismounted from the wagon, the four of them (even a still embarrassed and still red Virgil) made plans to make this a yearly tradition - only next time, they would remind Patton to take his allergy medication beforehand.


	12. Chapter 12

Each of the four roommates picked a bag full of apples during their latest trip to the apple orchard. Roman told the others to leave the kitchen for a few moments while he worked on a surprise for the group. He whistled, signalling for the other three to come into the kitchen.  
  
Virgil, Patton, and Logan stepped inside and were immediately greeted with the delicious smell of caramel.  
  
"Whatcha makin' there?" Patton asked Roman, standing on his tiptoes as if this would help him to gain a better view of what Roman was stirring on the stove.  
  
"Judging by the scent, I would guess caramel," Logan observed.  
  
"Ten points for Ravenclaw!" Roman announced.   
  
A bemused expression crossed Logan's face before he broke into a satisfied smirk. "Ten points for Ravenclaw indeed."  
  
"Alright Princey, since I don't think you melted a bunch of caramel in a pot for the sake of doing it...what's your big plan here?" Virgil arched an eyebrow, reaching for his bag to take an apple out to snack on.  
  
"DON'T!" Roman shouted, causing Virgil to jolt and nearly drop the apple in his hand.   
  
"Dude, a little warning would be nice," Virgil snapped in a low voice, shaking his head and setting his apple back down. He rolled his shoulders to relieve a little of the tension that Roman's shouting brought on.  
  
"I assume that there is a reason why you screamed like that?" Logan folded his arms across his chest like a teacher scolding a student.  
  
"Does it have something to do with the apples?" Patton chimed in, eyeing the bags of apples himself at this point.  
  
"Well, I figured we out to do something a bit... _seasonal_  with our treasures. So I made some caramel for caramel fondue!" he gestured to the pan on the stove. "To top it off, I even purchased Halloween sprinkles that we can add to the apples afterward, to make them a little more festive! Halloween is coming faster, after all!" Roman remarked cheerfully.  
  
"Hell yeah it is," Virgil rubbed his hands together.  
  
"Halloween is still greater than two weeks away, we are still in the early half of October," Logan pointed out.  
  
"What's the point of it being October if you're not gonna celebrate Halloween all month long?" Virgil retorted.  
  
"Twenty days is less than three weeks too! It's not like we're celebrating in September!" Patton added, beaming at Virigl's enthusiasm. Halloween was one of the rare holidays that Virgil got truly (visibly) excited about, after all.  
  
"Are you three clods going to bring your apples over here or am I going to have this caramel all to myself?" Roman shouted.  
  
In the end, they didn't dip  _all_  of their apples into the caramel. Patton set a few apples aside to put into an apple pie. Virgil still insisted on eating one of the apples while they were working on dipping the remaining apples in the caramel, reasoning that he was hungry  _now_  and could always have a caramel apple later on.  
  
But when the four of them finally sat down with an apple apiece and bit into their own handiwork? It was the best treat that any of them had in a while.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is for prompt #13, Friday the 13th

What the  _hell_  happened?   
  
Virgil was in Potions class with a few of his friends - Logan, Roman, and Patton. Someone nearby made a mistake on an incantation necessary for the Potion, and there was a whooshing sensation that sent all four of them to the ground.  
  
Virgil lay sprawled out, slowly pulling himself to a seated position. He groaned, realizing that his glasses got knocked loose in the commotion and that he needed to adjust...  
  
Wait, glasses?  
  
Virgil felt at his face, his hand meeting hard plastic. He was wearing glasses. Why was he wearing glasses?

He heard a groan beside him, his eyes immediately searching for the source. He froze at the sight that met him there.  
  
He watched  _himself_  extend and arm and push  _himself_  into a seated position.  
  
Was he dead? Had he been killed by the potion mishap and turned into a ghost?  
  
...wait, he was watching his own body moving of its own accord, that would not be possible were he a disembodied soul...unless his body was now an inferius?  
  
A shudder coursed through Virgil at the thought.  
  
His body, meanwhile, reached up and patted at his bangs, a look of bewilderment crossing his features. "Peculiar..." he heard his body mutter, then his body's gaze met his own - and his body's eyes flew as wide as if he'd seen a ghost.  
  
Which, given the circumstances...  
  
"I...uh..." His hand flew to his mouth, realizing that his voice sounded  _different_.  
  
His body looked him up and down, as if assessing something. Virgil might have been able to pinpoint the exact moment when comprehension dawned....but he was too busy attempting to stop the shaking in his hands.  
  
His utterly and completely solid hands.  
  
Ghosts did not have solid hands.

"Virgil? Is that you?" his body asked him. Virgil, finding it difficult to form words, decided that a simple nod would suffice.  
  
His body hummed. "I thought so. Virgil, please focus on the sound of my voice. You are not in danger. Something very...unusual has happened, but so far as I can tell you and I are entirely safe."  
  
Virgil arched an eyebrow. If he didn't know better, he would say that his body sounded like  _Logan_.  
  
...wait a second...  
  
Virgil glanced down at his robes. Instead of the green tie and Slytherin patch that he expected to greet him, he saw not only a Ravenclaw patch and Ravenclaw tie, but a  _prefect_  patch.  
  
His eyes met his body's...no,  _Logan's_.  
  
"What the  _hell_  happened?" Virgil repeated, this time aloud.  
  
"I...I'm attempting to work that out for myself," Logan informed him, peering down at his own...no,  _Virgil's_  robes.  
  
Virgil could feel his head spinning. This was going to get confusing  _very_  quickly.  
  
"This whole scenario bears a striking resemblance to the Muggle film 'Freaky Friday', up to and including the date being Friday the 13th," Logan observed.   
  
"...I'm guessing I should pretend that made sense to me?" Virgil blinked, arching an eyebrow.  
  
"Oh, right, you are a pureblood with little exposure to Muggle culture other than your friends and acquaintances. To give a brief synopsis of the film, a girl and her mother encounter a curse on Friday the 13th that results in their switching bodies, and their ensuing attempts to not only impersonate one another but remedy the situation as a whole," Logan explained.  
  
Virgil felt dizzy, overloaded. It was all too much. He ran a hand over his hair. "Can we skip the rest and jump straight to the 'fixing this' part?"  
  
"I have to agree with Jack Smellington, the sooner we fix this the better," Patton injected, snark practically dripping from his tone, from a few feet away.  
  
Wait,  _Patton_? Since when did Patton call him...  
  
Oh no.  
  
Virgil summoned every ounce of courage he had left in his body to glance in the direction of Patton's voice.  
  
"Yeaaaaaaaah, you could say I'm feeling a bit more  _lion-hearted_  than usual right now," Roman stated to his left, with a chuckle that would sound much more  _right_  coming from Patton's mouth rather than Roman's.  
  
Virgil groaned and buried his face in his hands. 


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is for prompt #14, or Pumpkin Spice Latte

"Patton, I don't even drink..." Virgil muttered as Patton pulled him gently through the doorway.  
  
"Oh hush, I'm sure you'll find something to drink here!" Patton smiled, making his way to the counter like an old pro.  
  
"Patton, wait, I...I don't know what I'm doing," he hissed the last part under his breath almost inaudibly. It was the truth, but he didn't exactly want the entire campus knowing that he was the only college student in existence who'd  _never stepped foot into a Starbucks in his entire life_.  
  
...okay, maybe not the  _only_  one. But it sure felt like it sometimes.  
  
Stepping up to the counter didn't exactly ease his nerves. He didn't even know what most of these drinks meant, and the sizes made even less sense to him. Tall, Grande, and Venti?  
  
"I'll take a caramel macchiato!" Patton announced confidently to the man behind the counter. "Oh my God, we're wearing the same glasses!" He squealed, pointing to the barista's Warby Parker frames.  
  
"...yep," the barista, 'Logan' as his name tag read, mumbled as he went off to prepare Patton's drink.  
  
Virgil, in the meantime, stood back as a young man in a leather jacket and sunglasses received his own order and brushed past, sniffing his drink. "Ahhh, pumpkin spiced seasonal depression." He proclaimed, then raised the drink to his lips and took a swig. He turned back to the barista and grinned. "Perf as always, babe." He winked. The barista shot him a smile back, then locked eyes with Virgil.  
  
Uh-oh. "Ah that Remy, always a charmer. What can I help you with, tall, dark, and handsome?"  
  
Virgil's eyes widened, and he was grateful that his makeup would (hopefully) obscure at least part of the blush that he could feel spreading across his cheeks. "Oh, I'll...I'll just take water." Virgil mumbled.  
  
The barista let out a snort. "Water? Who orders just a water at Starbucks? Come on, live a little! Try something new!"  
  
Virgil found himself wishing that he could disappear through the floor. He didn't know anything about  _anything_  at Starbucks, how was he supposed to order something?  
  
What was it that that guy, uh, Remy, said again?  
  
"Um...a, uh,  _tall_  pumpkin spiced seasonal depression?"  
  
Logan, who by now arrived back with Patton's drink, was staring at him in confusion. The barista in front of Virgil ( _Roman_ , his name tag helpfully supplied), was  _laughing_. "You...oh my god, that's hilarious! You're hilarious!"  
  
Forget disappearing into the floor, Virgil wanted to yeet himself into the sun.  
  
Roman regained his composure and tapped Virgil's 'order' into the computer. "One tall pumpkin spiced latte coming up," he told Virgil, who couldn't seem to force any other words to come out of his mouth.   
  
How was he to know that Remy was making a  _joke_  and that that wasn't actually a quirky name for one of the drinks in the restaurant?   
  
A few moments later, Roman came back to him with his drink, still beaming. "Thank you for that laugh, by the way. It was funny enough when Remy said it, but you just said it with such a serious face...for a moment I thought you were seriously ordering a drink by that name! I love it!"   
  
Virgil forced himself to smile back, hoping that no one noticed the way his hand was shaking when he accepted the drink from Roman.  
  
"Oh, don't forget to read the note attached. You don't necessarily have to do anything with it, but...if you're interested," Roman winked, leaving a bewildered Virgil clutching a pumpkin spiced latte with a note attached to it.  
  
A note that he still had to read.  
  
Virgil took the note, written on a post-it note, off of his bottle and read it over.  
  
 _Hot Topic,  
  
You are quite the_ hot topic  _if you get what I mean. I'd like to get to know you more. My number is 555-2422. Call me if you're interested!_  
  
...maybe the day wasn't a total wash after all.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is for prompt #15, or Pranks

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"   
  
Patton's scream echoed through the Mind Palace. Virgil bounded down the stairs looking read to throw someone down with his bare hands. Roman was not far behind him, carrying his sword. Logan...  
  
Logan emerged from the kitchen, holding the frying pain in his hands like a baseball bat.  
  
"AHHHHHHHHH! SPIDER!"  
  
Logan sighed and let the hand holding the frying pan fall to his side, massaging the bridge of his nose. "You mean to tell me that we all came running in here fearing for your safety, and you merely saw a spider?"  
  
"It's a really,  _really_  big spider," Patton whimpered, backing away from the window where he'd been standing.  
  
A large spider dangled from the curtain. Virgil approached slowly and cautiously, his eyes narrowed. Once he was close enough, he reached out with his hand. Patton squeaked and reached out with his hand, as if to pull Virgil back, but Virgil took the spider into his hand and gave it a squeeze.  
  
It  _squeaked_. "Just as I thought. It's fake." He cast the soft spider aside.  
  
"...oh no, Logan was supposed to come across that spider," Roman groaned, slapping his forehead.  
  
Virgil arched an eyebrow. "You mean to tell me that  _you're_  the one who planted that spider there?  _Knowing_  how deathly afraid of spiders Patton is?"  
  
"It wasn't  _for_  Patton!" Roman reiterated. "It was for Logan!"  
  
"Because that makes it  _so much_  better," Virgil snapped back.   
  
"It does, because Logan wouldn't have been as freaked out!" Roman retorted.  
  
"Wait just a second, you planted that spider for  _me_?" Logan cut through their argument. "Why on Earth would you..."  
  
"I thought you needed to loosen up a bit! You're always so stiff, I thought by catching you off guard I could..." Roman trailed off, apparently at a loss for what to say next.  
  
"...and you could not think of a better way of doing that than planting a spider on a curtain where anyone within the Mind Palace might stumble across it?"  
  
"...it seemed like a good idea at the time!" Roman let out an exasperated sigh.  
  
There was silence for a moment or so. Then... "Okay, but can we just talk about Logan coming out of the kitchen with a frying pan?" Virgil was unable to hold back the snort that ensued after his statement.  
  
"That was so cute! He looked ready to bash the spider to bits! My hero!" Patton squealed, going up to Logan and throwing his arms around him.   
  
Logan's face turned as red as a tomato.  
  
"Nevermind. This turned out  _far_  better than I hoped," Roman chuckled, clearly getting a kick out of Logan's current predicament.  
  
"You do realize that now that you've pranked my best friend, you have to face my wrath, don't you? One day, when you least expect it..." The corners of Virgil's mouth perked upward into the sort of smirk that would look right at home on the face of an mad scientist. He tapped his fingers together to complete the ensemble.  
  
Roman gulped. 


	16. Chapter 16

"Have you seen Virgil and Roman around yet?" Patton bounded up to his boyfriend, Logan, wearing a plush Winnie the Pooh costume with only his head visible.

Logan, much to his chagrin, wasn't faring much better. He still questioned to himself  _why_  he thought it was a good idea to allow Patton to choose their Halloween costumes this year, but Patton went all out on the cute factor.

Ugh.

...fine, seeing Patton happy and excited made it all worth it.

It did help that Patton suggested that Logan be Owl. Owl was always Logan's favorite character in Winnie the Pooh during the (exceedingly rare) occasions when he did watch the show as a child, and he was honestly flattered that Patton remembered him mentioning it as a brief conversation point a few weeks prior.

"No, I have seen no sign of Virgil or Logan. What was it that they were supposed to dress up as again?" Logan questioned Patton. Patton went over to the sign-up list where everyone listed their costumes for the couples costume contest that would be held at the end of the night.

Right below  _Logan Dicax and Patton Wright - Owl and Winnie the Pooh_  were  _Virgil Thompson and Roman Prince - Joker and Batman_.

"I can't wait to see what they'll do with it! Oh look, there's one of them now! OVER HERE!" Patton called out, waving his hand high up in the air. Logan, in the meantime, gave a much more subdued half wave as Batman made his way over to them.

Patton squealed, clapping his hands together in delight. "You make such a good Batman, Roman!"

Logan shifted a little where he stood, supposing that he ought to pay Roman a compliment as well. "You do wear the suit well, I must admit," he acknowledged.

"Where's Virgil, though?" Patton frowned. "I want to see what my dark strange son did for his costume! I bet it looks all ~scary. Oooooooooooh." Patton mimicked ghost noises.

"Patton, Virgil is eleven months younger than you are, that hardly qualifies him as your 'son'," Logan said in what might appear at first glance to be exasperation, but it was hard to miss the fond look in Logan's eyes as he could hardly take his eyes off of his boyfriend.

"Why so serious?" a voice said from behind Logan, causing him to jolt and nearly go flying into Patton. There the Joker stood, in all of his green-haired, white-faced, red-lipsticked glory. He let out a cackle more than just vaguely reminiscent of Mark Hamill's Joker in Batman The Animated Series. Logan nearly forgot that he was standing face to face with Virgil and not the Joker himself.

"You look amazing, kiddo!" Patton smiled. "And you did a great job with the makeup! I guess I shouldn't be surprised, what with all of that cool eyeliner you usually wear!"

"You think we should tell 'em, Bats?" The Joker asked, smirking at Batman. Batman, much to Patton and Logan's surprise...nodded? He then proceeded to remove his mask.

If the purple hair and dark eyeliner didn't give it away, the bangs would have.

It was definitely  _not Roman_  under that mask. Which meant...

Logan and Patton's wide-eyed gaze shifted back to Roman, who threw his hands out wide as if stepping out in front of a large crowd. "SURPRISE!"

As Virgil, Roman, Logan, and Patton got to talking, Logan reached the realization that Virgil and Roman's costume choices made sense. While one might pin Virgil down as preferring a more villainous look based on mere aesthetics and for Roman to go with a more heroic look, he did have to admit that these choices matched their personalities better.

Batman was a hero, yes, but he was a gritty, no-nonsense sort of hero who often kept to himself and kept his face hidden with a mask. Perfect for Virgil, who wasn't a fan of parties and preferred to hide himself away when he could. The mask was perfect for him, as it prevented others from seeing his face and thus recognizing him.

Joker, on the other hand, was a boasting, theatrical villain - Perfect for Roman, a major extrovert who loved attention and theater. He seemed to  _relish_  in the roll, and it allowed him the chance to shine and show his range in a way that dressing as Batman would have  _never_  allowed him to.

It was really no surprise to Logan when the couple won the Best Couples' Costume of the night. The bigger surprise came from the fact that he and Patton were runners-up.

The night was sure full of surprises, wasn't it?


	17. Chapter 17

As Virgil ventured down the stairs to the common area, he braced himself for what he might see there. His view from the first couple of stairs wasn't too bad. He saw black and orange streamers and could hear 'Kidnap the Sandy Claws' playing throughout the room. He supposed that this might not go too badly. He made it to the bottom of the stairs, doing a quick sweep of the room to see where the others were. Or at least that was his plan, until Patton stepped in front of him.  
  
"Virgil! Love the costume! Are you supposed to be Jack Skellington?" Patton beamed.  
  
Virgil was grateful that the first Side he had to talk to was Patton. Patton and Logan were the two Sides that Virgil found it easiest to converse with, to the point where he considered Patton his best friend and Logan...  
  
...well, Logan was something a little different.  
  
"Close," Virgil offered a small smile back to Patton. He gestured to the line of makeup stitches around his mouth that extended past the corners of his mouth and up the sides of his cheeks. "Sally," he grinned.  
  
Patton grinned. "Oooh, Sally! She's cool too! Awww, that means Roman could have dressed as Jack Skellington after all. He said he was thinking about it but figured you'd take it and he didn't think there should be two of the same costume. HEY ROMAN!" Patton waved across the room and Virgil shrunk in on himself a little. It wasn't that he minded talking with any of the others, but it was only _natural_ for him to feel a little more at edge in a party setting. Not to mention he wasn't sure how the others would view his outfit. Patton loved it, but Patton loved just about _everything_.  
  
Roman walked up and put his arm around Patton's shoulder, giving the man a peck on the lips before eying Virgil's makeup as if he were appraising it. "Sally? I thought for certain that you would be Jack. Nevertheless, I was at least correct as to where your inspiration would come from. I do have to admit that the makeup is a nice effect. You'll have to teach me how you did that."  
  
Roman wanted _Virgil's_ help with makeup? That was a surprise.  
  
Roman was dressed as Prince Phillip, to the point where he was even carrying his sword and what looked to be a hand-crafted shield. Patton was dressed as a walrus, in what Virgil suspected was a callback to the Q &A episode where Patton answered the 'name a song that says how you are feeling' question with 'I Am The Walrus'.   
  
"It looks like you truly are the walrus today," Logan approached from beside Patton, Virgil's heart picking up speed within his chest. Logan was dressed as Spock from Star Trek.  
  
"Hey Lo, I thought you liked Data better than Spock?" Roman inquired, thinking back to the Q&A a year and a half before where Logan indeed chose Data over Spock.  
  
"I do, but a Spock costume is more universally recognized," Logan explained.   
  
"I li-love it. It looks great," Virgil blurted out, suddenly at a loss for words. Logan blushed a little and held out his hand for Virgil to take.  
  
"Awww, that is _not_ so sweet that I'm _not_ going to puke," a familiar voice drawled.  
  
There stood Deceit, dressed as...  
  
"Wait, are you dressed as Sir Hiss from Robin Hood?" Logan observed with a bemused expression.  
  
_"So what if I am?!"_


	18. Chapter 18

"Lolo, I think I heard a monster in my closet," Patton whined, bringing the covers up to his chin as if to protect himself from any monsters that might dart from the closet across from his bed.  
  
Logan let out a sigh. "Patton, I highly doubt that there is a monster in your closet."  
  
Patton whimpered. "But I heard a noise!"  
  
"It was probably just the wind outside, Patton," Logan insisted.  
  
"Pleeeeeeease Logan?" the five year old insisted, lifting his sheet that much more so that only his eyes were showing.  
  
Logan let out a sigh and made his way toward the closet.  
  
\---------------------------------------------------------------------------  
  
"V, I heard something in my closet," Roman shivered.   
  
Virgil glanced toward Roman's closet, arching an eyebrow. "It's probably just your imagination." Roman was known for having a  _very_  active imagination, after all, and he supposed that could extend to so-called monsters in one's closet.  
  
"Noooooooo, it was a monster! I'm sure it was!" Roman protested.  
  
"I thought you were a brave prince?" Virgil teased the six year old.  
  
"I am! But...what if it's a big monster, much bigger than me?" he pouted.   
  
Virgil sighed. "If I look in the closet, will you stop bugging me about it?"   
  
Roman nodded. Virgil made his way toward the closet door and pulled it open.  
  
...just as Logan opened Patton's closet door.  
  
Logan stared speechlessly at the purple-skinned, black haired,  _one-eyed and six-armed_  creature that stood before him.  
  
Virgil, meanwhile, gaped at the two-eyed creature with strange lenses and only two arms.  
  
They both screamed simultaneously and slammed the door closed behind them.  
  
Patton's eyes were wide as he stared at Logan. "You were right. There is a monster in your closet," Logan told him simply.  
  
"What?!" Patton's eyes were wide as could be. "Where are you going?"  
  
"I am vacating the premises in case that creature comes back. I would suggest that you follow me unless you wish to meet the creature face to face." Logan informed him. Patton immediately threw his covers off and tore off after Logan.  
  
"Hey, wait for me!"  
  
Virgil, in the meantime, scooped Roman up and immediately began to run from the room.  
  
"V? What's going on?" Roman asked him in a wary tone.  
  
"You were right. There's a monster in your closet," Virgil explained, still running as fast as he could from Roman's room. "You're gonna sleep in my room tonight."


	19. Chapter 19

The line to enter the haunted house attraction located closest to their university was huge, but it was to be expected so close to Halloween. Patton, Logan, and Roman were near the front of the line, and Patton immediately clung to Roman's hand with his own.  
  
"You'll stick close to me, r-right?" Patton asked his boyfriend nervously.  
  
"Of course I will. I will make it my personal mission to see to it that you make it through this haunted house in one piece!" Roman announced.  
  
"Th-there's a chance I might not make it out in one piece?" Patton blurted out frantically, Roman's eyes immediately widening as he tried to walk back his mistake.  
  
"There is no actual danger in that house, Patton, only simulated danger. Also, were you not the one that suggested we visit this attraction to begin with?" Logan piped up at last.  
  
"I was, but...I dunno, it sounded fun but what if it's really super scary?" Roman gave Patton's hand a squeeze in an attempt to comfort him.  
  
Logan could not help but question why he came in the first place. His own boyfriend, Virgil, declined the invitation, stating that the inevitable jump scares inherent in haunted houses would wreak havoc on him.  
  
Thus Logan was stuck functioning as the third wheel for Roman and Patton. He should have stayed home as well, but Virgil insisted, telling him that he should not miss out just because Virgil was.  
  
"Finally! Let's go you two," Roman beckoned them inside the haunted house.

One had a dungeon theme, while the next mimicked a mad scientist's lair, complete with blood splatters and evidence of gruesome experimentation. The third room they visited had Patton covering his eyes with his hand almost the whole time.  
  
"SPIDERS!" he screamed, clinging as tightly as he could to Roman's hand with his other hand, letting Roman pull them through the room. When they made it to the next room and Patton saw that the coast was clear - of spiders at least - Patton through his arms around Roman and nuzzled him slightly. He then planted a kiss on Roman's cheek.  
  
The trio glanced at the room around them. They could immediately tell that this room was to be some sort of monster's lair. It was dark and difficult to see, and Logan could hear odd movements that did not sound quite human in nature.  
  
Logan figured they only had a couple more rooms to go, and thus he soldiered on.  
  
Patton, on the other hand, insisted on taking a rest. Logan blinked. Was it just him or did the noises sound like they were getting closer. They stopped just behind Patton, followed by a ferocious and wild shriek that sounds as if it surfaced from the depths of someone's being.  
  
Then...laughter?  
  
Familiar laughter.  
  
Logan gaped as the figure, dressed in all black, slipped out from the shadows.  
  
"...Virgil? I thought you said you couldn't..." Roman frowned.  
  
Virgil smirked. " I did. I said I couldn't come with you guys. I didn't say I wouldn't be here," he winked.  
  
"Glad you could make it, kiddo!" Patton beamed.  
  
"Well I  _do_  work here," Virgil chewed on his lip as if trying not to smile even more. "You should have seen the looks on your faces. It was a work of art."

He might not trust himself to handle the jump scares himself, but he could still participate by creating the fun for others.  
  
"You could have told us ahead of time!" Roman sighed. "We could have better prepared..."  
  
"Where's the fun in that? It was better seeing your reactions. Freak out much you guys?" Virgil teased.  
  
"I did not freak out, I was merely surprised," Logan explained.  
  
"Riiiight Logan. I could have seen you jump from a mile away," Roman winked.  
  
"Well, I should probably get back to work, but before I do..." Virgil glanced around quickly before planting a quick peck on Logan's lips before slinking back off into the shadows to scare the next person.


	20. Chapter 20

"Remind me why I ever agreed to this  _stupid_ idea again?" Virgil hissed as he followed slightly behind Roman, the only light piercing through their almost pitch black surroundings being the light from the flashlight on Roman's phone.  
  
"I must agree with Virgil - if we are visiting this abandoned carnival merely for cheap thrills, it seems highly unnecessary..." Logan chimed in, relieving Virgil. At least Virgil wasn't alone in his feelings, though Logan sounded less  _terrified_  and more  _bored_.  
  
If only.  
  
"The stories that Dee heard? He makes things up on the daily!" Roman countered.  
  
While this was true, Virgil couldn't help but feel unsettled, like there was something in the air that  _shouldn't be_.  
  
The light on Roman's phone went off, leaving them at the mercy of the blackness of the night. He could see faint forms that he knew to be Logan, Roman, and Patton, but he couldn't make out any details, and his heart raced so fast that he felt it might burst forth from his chest and make a run for it.  
  
"I-I don't know, Dee might not have been making up this one," Patton stuttered. Virgil didn't like it. He didn't like Patton to be scared,  _Virgil_  was the one who was supposed to worry about everything.  
  
"My phone probably just..." Roman shook his phone a little, the light flickering back on. "See? My phone was just acting-" He froze, his eyes going wide.  
  
There, a few feet in front of them, was a figure covered in blood with large teeth and a gaping maw.  _"LEAVE,"_  the figure shouted in a deep, echoing, and demonic voice.   
  
The quartet didn't need to be told twice, turning tail and running back in the direction they came from.  
  
Turned out there were rare moments where Dee could tell the truth after all.  
  
On the bright side, Virgil planned on holding this over Roman's head for the next several months whenever he tried to convince them to do something stupid, so there was that.


	21. Chapter 21

The first thing Logan saw after his death was a purple-haired young man in a patched hoodie with his bangs in his eyes and his hands stuffed in his pockets.  
  
"Is this...where am I?" Logan muttered, pushing himself to a seated position and remaining in that position for a moment or so before pushing himself up to his feet.  
  
"...ugh, this is always the hard part. I don't really know how to break this to you, but...uh...tada! You're a ghost!" The corners of the young man's mouth twitched upward into an exaggerated grin and he spread his arms out wide.  
  
"Oh," came Logan's response.  
  
"...dude, what? I just told you that you're a ghost and all you can say is 'oh'? That has to be the calmest response I've  _ever_  gotten." He let his arms fall to his sides, eyeing Logan as if he were some sort of mystery to be solved.  
  
It was Logan's to do a double take, however, because something that this young man said piqued his curiosity. "Calmest response you've ever gotten? I take it that you've held a conversation with a ghost before this, then?"  
  
The young man let out a snort. "Not that hard when you're a ghost yourself. Name's Virgil. I'm supposed to be your guide to the afterlife or whatever."  
  
Logan snickered. Virgil arched an eyebrow at that. "Something funny, Specs?"  
  
Logan continued to chuckle, though he did regain his composure somewhat faster than he would have otherwise. "Virgil, guide to the afterlife? Like in Dante's Inferno?"  
  
Though Virgil's bangs mostly covered his eyes, Logan could still make out Virgil's blinking beneath them. "...not many people get that reference. You're kind of a nerd, aren't you?"  
  
Logan bristled at that. Virgil waved his hand. "Hey, don't worry about it. I was kind of a nerd myself. Still am, really. It's just not many people focus on the history of my name and instead focus on the aesthetic." He gestured to himself.  
  
"Well that is highly unfortunate," Logan responded with a shake of his head. "So...if you are a guide to the afterlife, so to speak, where shall we begin? I should hope that you will not take me on a journey through the inferno as your namesake did..."  
  
Virgil snickered, covering his mouth as he did so, almost as if he were  _embarrassed_. "Well, no. Ghosts don't go to hell, they're bound to haunt a certain geographical area."  
  
"The building that they died in?" Logan frowned. That would get awfully tiring after a while.  
  
Virgil shook his head. "Not quite like that. It's a common misconception. It's more like the  _city_ they died in, places they were familiar with. That sort of thing. You're not expected to stay tethered to one place for the rest of eternity, but you can't go off exploring Paris if you've never been there now that you've snuffed it."  
  
"Awww, too bad. I always wanted to see The Lourve," Logan remarked dryly. "What else do I need to know?"  
  
"You can contact the living, but it takes a lot of energy, and it's not exactly easy. It's best to save up your energy for special occasions. Dreams make it easier to cross the barrier sometimes though, so there's that," Virgil commented with a shrug.  
  
"Sounds...awfully lonely," Logan remarked with a frown. He enjoyed ample amounts of alone time, but there was a large difference between being alone because you  _chose_  to be and being alone because you  _had_  to be.  
  
And there was a certain crushing loneliness when one realized that they would scarcely be able to contact their loved ones again. Logan thought of his older brother Patton and his younger brother Roman...  
  
"Virgil?" he turned to look at the other ghost.  
  
"Hmmm?" Virgil responded, twirling one of the strings from his hoodie in one of his hands.  
  
"Do you...how long do you usually spend with new arrivals?"   
  
"Oh, uh, depends on how long they want me around for. I can go now if you want," Virgil started to float away.  
  
"Wait!" Logan called out, Virgil pausing immediately. "I...I don't want you to go," he admitted in a small voice. He felt a shudder go through him, as a wave of emotion that he was trying to hold back seemed to hit him all at once. "Please stay," he added in a whisper so quiet that he doubted whether Virgil would be able to hear it.  
  
Virgil floated back to Logan, pausing next to the other ghost. He slipped his hand into Logan's and gave it a squeeze.  
  
As difficult as this transition would be, he supposed that he could at least take solace in one thing - he would not be alone in his journey. And at that moment, that meant the world to him.


	22. Chapter 22

It was pitch black out, save for a steady stream of light that cut through the cemetery. Roman wasn't about to turn down a dare to spend an hour in a cemetery. He was strong and brave. He could do this.   
  
He stepped onto a stick, which crunched loudly under his foot. Roman startled, then cursed under his breath.  
  
...just a stick. There was no need to freak out.  
  
"Hooooooo-ooooo."   
  
Roman jumped again, before realization set in. "Just an owl," he muttered to himself.   
  
Another crunch, but this time he didn't feel anything beneath his feet.  
  
A whisper on the wind, except there  _was_  no wind.   
  
A clicking noise.  
  
Footsteps.  
  
 _"Screw this,"_  Roman muttered, turning tail and running out of the cemetery. He hadn't even lasted thirty minutes.  
  
Meanwhile, two other young men were crouched behind a tree, one in a yellow t-shirt and the other in a black and purple patched hoodie. The one in yellow snickered, clutching his cell phone. "That was too easy, wasn't it Virgil?"  
  
Virgil, the one in the hoodie, rolled his eyes. "Remind me why you wanted me to come along again?" It was easier to stay out here if he focused on the fact that Dee dragged him out here in the first place, and not that he was in a  _cemetery_  at  _night_  and that this was practically asking vengeful spirits to attack them.  
  
"Ooooooooooooooooooooo," the groan cut through the darkness.  
  
Virgil rolled his eyes. "Come on Dee, we already scared Roman off." He clenched his hands tightly at his sides, trying to keep the shaking in his voice to a minimum. He glanced over at his older brother.  
  
Dee was frowning, staring down at his phone. "That...was not me," Dee muttered.  
  
The two young men exchanged glances, comprehension slowly dawning on their features.   
  
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" They screamed, almost in unison, as they tore off in the same direction Roman fled in mere minutes before.


	23. Chapter 23

It was probably a trick of his ears.  
  
Virgil remained on edge as he and his friends made their way through the forest.  
  
His heart was already racing, every noise morphing into a dangerous animal or a murderer in his mind's eye. The rustle of a tree branch, their footsteps along the path, a hushed whisper...all of it screamed danger.  
  
 _"We're almost there..."_  Patton murmured next to him. There was another rustle, followed by a loud screech.  
  
 _"RUN!"_  Roman screamed as the four of them took off at top speed. Virgil was shortly behind Roman and Logan when he heard a thud and a whimper behind him.  
  
He turned at once, only to be met by the horrifying sight of Patton sprawled out on the ground. Virgil doubled back to help his best friend up, only to realize they weren't alone. A figure, barely visible in the shadows of the night, stood over Patton.  
  
"You...get away from him!" Virgil yelled, hoping that he sounded braver than he felt. The figure reached for Patton and Virgil growled, surging forward to get him away from Patton by all means possible.   
  
Even if it meant sacrificing himself to do so.  
  
He was caught by the shoulder and pulled backward. He tried desperately to wrench himself out of whoever (or  _whatever_  had him in their grasp, but it was a fruitless endeavor - they were much stronger than him).  
  
A shudder went through him as he heard a long sniff from behind him.  _"Mmmm, smells delicious. Can't wait to take a bite!"_  
  
Soon after uttering the word bite, Virgil realized with horror that he felt something pierce into his neck. The other figure was crouching over Patton now as well.  
  
Virgil jerked and pulled, trying in vain to pull himself from the vampire's grasp, but could feel his energy slowly draining alongside his blood supply. His movements grew slower, more fatigued.   
  
The last thing he heard before everything faded to black was the sound of Patton feebly calling out for help.


	24. Chapter 24

Virgil was in charge of making sure that Thomas made it home safely. He was walking home alone, after he missed his ride.  
  
Virgil's senses were in overdrive as he paid close attention to every shadow and every sound. With every increase in his own heart rate, Thomas's heart rate would increase in turn. Thomas's eyes were darting this way and that. He looked utterly terrified.  
  
Virgil felt guilty for making Thomas feel this way, but he  _had_  to. He had to keep Thomas safe.  
  
Thomas started walking faster, and Virgil had to speed up his own walk in order to keep up. Thomas continued to speed walk until he reached a point where he was outright running, and Virgil was sprinting after him.  
  
Once they made it home, Thomas slammed the door closed and locked it, throwing his back against the door.  
  
Virgil, on the other hand, sighed in frustration. What was he supposed to do when Thomas slammed the door in his...  
  
Oh, right. He was a mental projection. He wasn't bound by the same principles of physics that normal humans were.  
  
Virgil sunk down, then appeared at his usual spot at the base of Thomas' stairs. Thomas screamed and threw a shoe at him.  
  
"...dude, really?" Virgil said as he dodged the flying footwear.  
  
"V-Virgil?" Thomas stammered.  
  
"In the flesh," Virgil drawled. "What was the meaning of all of that? I could barely keep up with you out there."  
  
"Keep up with me?" Thomas blinked back in confusion.  
  
"Yeah, I walked home with you to make sure you were safe. You didn't think I was going to let you go without protection, did you?"  
  
Thomas let out a strained laugh. "So that was  _you_. The footsteps I heard following me the whole way."  
  
"You heard..." ...oh crap. Virgil thought it was his own panic seeping into Thomas and making him panic. It was the sound of his footsteps?  
  
Thomas continued to chuckle. "Next time warn me when you're going to do that." He held a hand to his chest. "I thought someone was following me home!"


	25. Chapter 25

"And then she turned around to look in the mirror, but it was not only her reflection she saw there, but that of her sister as well. But her sister was not in the room, and her sister's reflection was beating on the mirror, crying, screaming, as if she were  _trapped, helpless...forever in a warped reality, never to make it back home, the mirror the only connection to the life that she left behind..._ " Virgil began to laugh maniacally.  
  
A sudden yelp to his left startled Virgil to the point where he nearly dropped the flashlight that he was shining in his face to play up the creepy aesthetic. His gaze traveled to Patton, whose face was buried in his knees. Roman put an arm around the moral Side. At first he jumped at Roman's touch, but as Roman rubbed his shoulder he slowly began to calm down.  
  
"Pat, I told you to tell me if it was getting too scary for you," Virgil frowned.  
  
"It was such a good story though, I wanted to hear how it ended..." Patton protested.  
  
It was Roman's idea to tell ghost stories at night, Patton quickly seconding it. Virgil and Logan were less enthusiastic, though Virgil began to get into it when he realized that his overactive imagination when it came to  _dangerous scenarios_  could come in handy while telling ghost stories.  
  
He just...hadn't wanted to scare Patton  _that_  badly.  
  
"Perhaps we should refrain from any further ghost stories for the time being?" Logan suggested.   
  
"Awww, but I didn't even get to tell mine yet," Patton pouted.  
  
"...yours? But I thought you were frightened," Logan frowned. "You looked highly discomforted and I assumed that it was because of Virgil's story..."  
  
"It was," Patton explained. "But that was what made it so  _good_. And it gave me some ideas for my own!"  
  
Patton took the flashlight for himself. "So four people were taking a little known shortcut through the forest, unaware of the dangers that lay within..." Patton spoke in a deep, mysterious voice, one that sent chills up Virgil's spine...until Patton beamed and looked at the others expectantly. "Am I doing this right? Is it good so far?"

Yeah, Patton would get the hang of this in no time.


	26. Chapter 26

Virgil raised an eyebrow as their van pulled up to the house they would be exploring.  
  
 _Ghostbusters_  was blaring from the van's speakers. Roman’s idea, of course. As if they needed theme music. He’d never admit that he had to bite back a grin of amusement when he heard the first few notes.  
  
Patton actually wanted to call their group Ghostbusters until Logan pointed out that they weren't technically busting ghosts, they were merely searching for the existence of ghosts in various dwellings and other buildings.  
  
They four of them climbed out of their van and looked up at the house in front of them. An abandoned house, of course, because those were always the  _best_  houses to look into. A real estate agent was trying to sell the home, but at the last minute every single one of her deals was falling through because  _something_  was scaring them off. So she'd hired the four of them to see if the rumors were true and the house was actually haunted.  
  
Roman assured her that even if the house was haunted, there existed a certain subset of the population who would actually enjoy living in such a dwelling. Judging by the skeptical look on the woman's face as the four of them were walking out of her office, she didn't entirely buy Roman's reasoning.  
  
At first, the search seemed like a bust. The group split up, Virgil and Logan taking one direction and Roman and Patton taking another. Virgil and Logan found little to suggest that the home was haunted by anything other than mice and a family of raccoons that lived in the crawl space. Given how fast Virgil had to jump out of the area to avoid being attacked by a mother raccoon defending her babies, he wouldn't be surprised if the raccoons weren't the ones driving all of the real estate agent's potential buyers off.  
  
"I think we ought to tell her that she should consider calling animal control before she attempts to sell this house once more," Logan remarked dryly. "Let us reconvene with Roman and Patton and-"  
  
Logan was cut off by a loud scream coming from the other side of the house. Virgil jumped back and nearly lost his footing. "What the..." he hissed.  
  
There was another scream. Logan and Virgil exchanged wide-eyed glances before dashing off in the direction of the screams. "Roman? Patton? Are you alright?" Logan called out.  
  
The two turned the corner and entered the upstairs bedroom. Roman was standing with a lampstand in his head, holding it as if he were ready to swing at any moment.  
  
Then...there was Patton. Only a single glance told Virgil that it was not Patton at all. For one, he had glowing yellow eyes. In addition, an uncharacteristically twisted smirk marred his features. They  _were_  Patton's features. But that was not Patton.  
  
"Oh dear, I'm so happy to have visitors yet  _again_ ," notPatton drawled. "Oh well, I won't have fun with this!"   
  
"What was that you said about not ghost busting, Virgil?" Roman called out to him.  
  
"Fine. Maybe we'll need to do a little ghost busting," Virgil sighed, turning to notPatton before narrowing his eyes and flashing him a small smirk. "Believe me, you'll rue the day that you messed with our best friend."  
  
And as the ghost glanced from Virgil to Roman to Logan and saw the determined looks on their faces, the passion present in their expressions? He realized that he might have made a mistake.


	27. Chapter 27

The spider was gaining on them.   
  
It was an unnaturally large spider, one that put the size of the Acromantulas in the Harry Potter universe to shame. They knew that if this spider caught them, they were doomed, but how were they to outrun a spider of such unusual size?  
  
They weren't.  
  
The first to be eaten was Roman, who valiantly attempted to defend the other three by pulling out his sword and stabbing the spider. The spider was so large that it merely flinched at the feeling, then pulled Roman into its maw and ate him in one bite.  
  
The next two to go were Logan and Deceit. That even Deceit was willing to pull his weight to attempt to save the others warmed his heart, but it all turned out to be for naught as the spider made quick work of the other two.  
  
That left Virgil and Patton. The spider made an unearthly noise than began to chase after Patton. Patton screamed and ran as fast as his legs could carry him - but it was no use. The spider was gaining on him. The ground shook beneath him from the force of the spider's movements, and he lost his footing, landing sprawled out on the ground in front of him.  
  
It was going to eat him. Then...  
  
"Patton! Hurry!" Virgil called out to him in a panicked voice. Patton turned just in time to see Virgil get pulled into the spider's mouth.  
  
"NO!" Patton screamed, thrashing about as he tried to pull himself back to his feet.  
  
"Patton! PATTON!" Virgil's voice? That was impossible! He just watched Virgil get eaten!  
  
"Padre, wake up," that was Roman.  
  
Patton opened his eyes to see the other four Sides - even Deceit - standing over him with concerned expressions on their face.  
  
"You look like you had a  _wonderful_  dream," Deceit remarked.  
  
It was the word 'dream' that made Patton realize what happened...and he let out a small sob of relief.  
  
"Pat? Are you...Gucci?" Roman frowned.  
  
"I...had the most terrible dream," he sniffled. "We were being chased by a giant spider, and it a-ate all of you and was a-about to eat me and...and..."  
  
Roman shuffled awkwardly. "I suppose the blame for this falls upon Deceit and I..."  
  
Logan arched an eyebrow at this. "How do you figure?"  
  
"The two of us  _didn't_  decide to watch Arachnophobia in the commons because we  _didn't_  want to see who would get scared first," Deceit answered.   
  
"I totally won, by the way," Roman proclaimed.  
  
"No, you totally  _won_ ," Deceit responded.  
  
"The two of you just said the same th-oh right, Deceit's habit of speaking in lies. That means that you  _lost_ , didn't you Roman?" Logan observed, the corners of his mouth twitching upward into a smirk.  
  
"I...may have gotten a little too  _passionate_  about the movie. But it's hard not to!" Roman protested.  
  
Patton smiled, letting out a few chuckles. He heard a hum at his side and turned to look at Virgil.  
  
"You okay, Patton?" Virgil asked somewhat reluctantly.   
  
"Yeah, I'm fine Virge," Patton responded, reaching out to give Virgil's hand a squeeze.  
  
"I, uh..I was wondering if you might wanna..." Virgil shuffled where he stood, playing with the edges of his sleeves. "I would say you could come to my room b-but that would probably make you feel worse and...and..."  
  
"The five of us could spend a night out in the commons, if it would make you feel more at ease, Patton?" Logan offered. Virgil shot Logan a look of gratitude, for managing to voice what he was clearly  _trying_  to say but struggling to do so.  
  
"Oooh, a slumber party! We haven't had one of those in ages!" Roman screamed.  
  
"You four  _haven't_  had slumber parties before?" Deceit inquired with an arched eyebrow. "I would  _hate_  to join you, to  _not_  see what it's all about."  
  
"Then it's settled! We're having a slumber party tonight!" Patton beamed in delight, his heart still racing, but this time for a different reason - He was going to have a slumber party with the other Sides, his best friends, his famILY. He was  _excited_.  
  
...and still, admittedly, a tad scared.  
  
But it was alright. He was going to be spending the night with his famILY. He felt a lot safer now.


	28. Chapter 28

Virgil tapped at the buttons on the video game controller in rapid succession, his eyes slightly narrowed as he focused on the TV screen.

"You're going the wrong way, My Chemically Imbalanced Romance,"Roman stated, interrupting Virgil's concentration.

"I am not. This is the way I need to go to advance to the next level," Virgil grumbled before tapping on the controller a few more times.

Roman rolled his eyes and took the controller from Virgil's hand, then began playing.

"Hey!" Virgil protested. "It's still my turn!"

"But you're going the wrong way!" Roman countered. "I can't sit by and watch you play it wrong..."

"Virgil. Roman. The two of you need to behave. It's still Virgil's turn, so let Virgil play it out. You can play how you want to on your turn, Roman," the moral Side told them, sounding every bit the father figure that he was based off of.

Roman grumbled and roughly handed the controller back to Virgil, who immediately went back to playing and correcting anything that Roman had done while he was playing.

Logan, in the meantime, was sitting off to the side reading one of Thomas' old chemical engineering books, muttering something about an experiment that he wished to do.

"Now I just need to...GAH!" Virgil screamed, but he wasn't the only one. Roman screamed at the top of his lungs, and Patton jumped in surprise at both of their reactions. Even Logan nearly fell out of his seat from the sheer unexpectedness of it all.

That wasn't the end of it, however. "Now look what you did!" Roman complained. "How are we going to finish playing now?"

Logan chanced a glance in Virgil and Roman's direction to see what the two were talking about...and he nearly did a double take.

"You screamed too!" Virgil ground out.

"Yes, but I didn't yeet a game controller into the TV," Roman retorted.

"...did you seriously just say yeet unironically, Princey?" Virgil arched an eyebrow.

Roman shrugged. "I didn't think a better opportunity would present itself."

Logan sighed and waved his hand. Immediately, the TV was restored to its prior condition, and the game controller was laying on the ground looking good as new. "The problem is easily remedied."

Virgil and Roman looked at the screen briefly, then back at each other. Virgil reached for the controller, but Roman snatched it before Virgil could pick it up. Virgil narrowed his eyes. "Hey, it's still my turn!"

"You literally threw the controller through the screen, Virgil. You forfeited your turn," Roman responded.

"...gotta admit that's a good argument, kiddo..." Patton chimed in. 

Virgil groaned and laid back with his head against the back of the couch. "Fiiiiiiiiine. I'm never going to live this down, am I?"

"Throwing a controller through the TV screen because of a jumpscare? Fat chance!" Roman proclaimed triumphantly.

Virgil let out another groan.


	29. Chapter 29

"You're a witch, Virgil."

  
"I'm a what?" The similarities to Harry Potter were not lost on Virgil. In fact, were it not for fantasizing about Harry Potter and receiving his Hogwarts letter (though he supposed Ilvermorny would have been more fitting, seeing as he was American), he would have cast this off as a joke. He was still half-tempted to do so.

Then again, he'd seen some  _strange_  things...

"Surely you must sense it," the woman that stood before him said. Virgil merely nodded, unsure what else to say or do.

He could sense when something bad was about to happen. He'd played it off at first, but as it happened more and more often it became evident that it was no mere coincidence.

 

Was that enough to be considered a witch, though?

"Though witches may learn several crafts, there is typically one craft that they show a natural affinity to. Have you experienced such a thing?" she inquired, as if reading his mind. The thought of her doing so made him uncomfortable, and he hoped that it was mere coincidence and not this particular witch's ability.

"I...I can sense when something bad is going to happen. It-it's not anything specific, just a...a general sense," Virgil explained.

The witch nodded. "Yes, I would say that you showcase a natural affinity toward precognition. As for my ability..." The woman shifted at once, taking the form of a fierce looking dragon. Virgil's eyes widened and he took a few steps back before the dragon shifted back to the form of the young woman. "...an affinity toward shifting, specifically into the form of a dragon."

A Dragon Witch. It sounded like something from his younger brother Roman's plays. 

"I wish to take you on as my apprentice," she informed him. "Every good witch becomes that way because they had a teacher who showed them the ropes. I wish to extend that service to you."

She held out a hand for Virgil to take. Virgil began to extend his own hand, then hesitated. He didn't know whether he could trust this woman or not. Her smile faltered slightly when she saw how he hesitated.

"What's wrong?" she questioned.

Virgil chewed on his bottom lip as he considered how best to respond. "I...it's just a lot to take in. Can I take some time to think about it?" He didn't want to rush into anything, especially not something that would change his life the way that he believed this would.

The woman nodded. "Very well. I will meet with you in a week's time. Will that be long enough?"

Virgil nodded and bade farewell to the Dragon Witch.

A week to consider the pros and cons of witch training. There was plenty he could do in that week's time...


	30. Chapter 30

Virgil sleepily entered the kitchen, rubbing his eyes.   
  
He didn't stay sleepy for long once he took in the sight that greeted him.  
  
Every cupboard was open, the refrigerator was open, there were things piled on the table, piled on the counter, piled on the...  
  
"Logan?" Virgil frowned as he slowly approached the logical Side, who was currently digging through the pantry.  
  
 _"I can't find it anywhere, this is highly improbable, my calculations predicted that there was at least enough to last us until the weekend..."_  Logan muttered.  
  
"Can't find what, Logan?" Virgil stared at him, uncomprehending. He figured that things would grow a lot clearer once he learned what it was that Logan was looking for.  
  
"Crofters, Virgil. The Crofters is gone!"  
  
...or maybe not.

"All of this," he gestured exaggeratedly at their surroundings, "is because the  _Crofter's_  is gone?"  
  
"Crofters is the only jelly I will put in my belly, you know this Virgil," Logan told him.  
  
Virgil let out a sigh. He supposed there was nothing else to it. Logan was going to keep searching until the kitchen was searched from bottom to top, or he found a jar of Crofter's. His only option was to join the madness...or so he thought until he heard a ruckus coming from the entrance to the kitchen.  
  
"Mmmm, Logan, I see why you like this so much," Roman announced as he joined them in the kitchen. In his hand he held an empty jar of Crofter's with a spoon still sitting in it.  
  
Logan let out a gasp. "That was  _my_  Crofters, how dare you eat it all..."  
  
Roman shrugged. "Too late now. You snooze you lose...the jam." Roman grinned triumphantly before starting for the fridge and turning his attention from Logan.  
  
Big mistake.  
  
Logan let out a sound reminiscent of a dinosaur's shriek before launching himself at Roman  
  
"Welp, this should be good," Virgil smirked as he slipped his phone from the pocket of his hoodie and began to record.


	31. Chapter 31

_"Alright guys, you can look now!"_  
  
Virgil was the first to peek his head out of his room and venture down the hall. He wasn't usually the first to do much of  _anything_ , but today was the exception. Halloween, Virgil's favorite holiday.   
  
The fact that it was his best friend Patton calling helped as well, of course.  
  
Patton went all out in decorating the Mind Palace Commons. Not only were there streamers and paper bats and orange and black  _everywhere_ , but each of their 'spots' had it's own flair.

Logan's took on the appearance of a mad scientist's lab, Roman's had posters and all sorts of references from musicals that could be taken to have a Halloween tilt to them, such as Wicked and The Phantom Of The Opera. Virgil's looked like a mixture of something from The Nightmare Before Christmas and his own room, complete with a replica of his constantly spinning clock and a life-sized model of  _Zero_.

"Padre, this is  _amazing_. Where did you find the time to do all of this?" Roman's voice cut through. Virgil looked to Patton for his answer.  
  
"Oh, I set this all up last night," Patton waved his hands.  
  
"Last night? That seems highly improbable, considering some of these props look like they took days to put together," Logan joined in.  
  
"Hello, I did  _not_  receive your notice to join everyone in the commons..." Deceit drawled, appearing in the doorway of the room.  
  
"YAY THE GANG'S ALL HERE!" Patton shouted and clapped his hands together in delight. "And yeah, I started on the props about a month ago!"  
  
"A  _month_?" Virgil spluttered. "You've been putting this together for a month?"  
  
"Yup!" Patton responded cheerily. "Oh, and there's one more thing I wanted to show you..." He turned on the TV. A slide show started that consisted of individual photos and collages of all the Sides engaging and various Halloween and fall-themed activities over the month. The group decorating cupcakes, making caramel apples, carving pumpkins, in various costumes...  
  
" _That's_  why you were taking all of those pictures!" Roman realized.  
  
"Yup! I wanted to do something extra special for Halloween," Patton smiled. "I hope you guys like it!"  
  
"Like it? LIKE IT? LIKE IT? I LOVE IT!" Roman screamed.  
  
Virgil tapped the side of his ear a few times with his finger. "Say it louder, I don't think they heard you in  _Europe_." He turned to Patton. "Everything looks great, Dad."  
  
"I concur with the the assessments the others have made. This is quite the impressive display, Patton," Logan added.  
  
"Its terrible and I absolutely hate it," Deceit chimed in.

Patton did not miss a beat. "Awww thank you Deceit..."  
  
"But he..." Roman began to protest, then paused when he recalled Deceit's way of talking. "Oh right. The whole 'lie' thing. In is out, on is off, and down is up. Every day is opposite day with Deceit."  
  
"Come on guys, let's all get together for one last picture!" Patton held out his phone and beckoned the others over. "On the count of three, say Halloween! One, two, three..."  
  
"HALLOWEEN!" They all shouted as the camera snapped their picture.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If anyone was wondering why Patton was taking all those pictures in some of the early installments in this...that's why. Happy Halloween!


End file.
